The word 'burnout' is doing more harm than good

As you know if you’ve read some of my emails this spring, I've been thinking about the word 'burnout' a lot lately.

Not because I think it's overused, it's not. The experience it names is very real, and for a lot of people right now, it's the most accurate description of where they are.

But I think the word itself is doing us harm.

Think about it. 'Burnout' implies what's left when a fire has consumed everything, a spent match. Nothing left to ignite. No point in even trying. And when we apply that word to a person, we tend to draw the same conclusions: this person needs a new job. A new career. Maybe leadership shouldn't bother investing in them anymore.

But here's what the research actually says: burnout is episodic, not terminal. It comes in waves.

Which means the job of leaders isn't to promise that no one on their team will ever experience it. It's to get better at three specific things:

1. Recognizing the early signs of a wave coming

2. Decreasing the intensity of each wave when it hits

3. Lengthening the time between waves

And these goals can’t land solely, or even primarily, on the individual professional. This has to be a team focus. Burnout is not an individual problem.

And here's the piece that doesn't get talked about enough: burnout is emotionally contagious. Especially in fields where people hand off their most vulnerable moments to each other, as so often happens in healthcare, education, social work. And it may also be the case in finance, real estate, business of any kind. When one person is drowning, the people around them feel it. They catch it.

But so is motivation. So is connection. Emotional contagion works in both directions.

Which means the question leaders should be asking isn't just 'how do I prevent burnout?' It's 'how do I use the fact that our emotions spread to actually strengthen my team?'

All my best,

Dr. G